A Forgotten Past
by Tabbitha Moon
Summary: Craklyn, Recorder of Redwall Abbey, and Abbess Tansy unknowingly uncover the history of a Redwall heroine, Rose, in her diary.
1. The Diary

**I made up some of the characters in this story except for the very few that were actually from Brian Jacques' series, Redwall. The settings are most likely from my imagination, save Redwall and some of the surrounding Mossflower Wood. Please R&R ^^**  
  
Craklyn looked at the small otter dibbun who was perched on the armrest of her chair, sound asleep. Gently taking the otter babe off the armrest, she placed him on the seat of the chair and picked up a blanket. Walking to the open door, she shook out the blanket and hardly noticed when a beat up old book fell out of the creases of the quilt. Walking back to the chair, Craklyn put the quilt on the sleeping dibbun. Craklyn walked slowly back to her desk and began to record the day's happenings. After about five minutes, she finally could not handle the otter babe's uproarious snoring and moved to the doorway. She would have tripped on the book if Abbess Tansy had not walked up at that moment and asked her what the book was for.  
  
"What book?" Craklyn asked looking at Tansy inquisitively.  
  
"The one you stopped only two steps behind of," the Abbess replied with a smile, but then her face creased with worry. "You didn't see the book, did you?" She walked to Craklyn and picked up the book, showing it to her. "What do you suppose it is?"  
  
Craklyn looked from Tansy to the book, and back again. "There's only one way to find out," she answered and took the book from the Abbess.  
  
Sitting down on the steps, both Redwallers looked at the cover of the book for a while before opening to the first page. The cover was black, tattered, torn, and stained. The first page wasn't in very good condition, but it could still be read:  
  
"I don't suppose those of us living in secret in Mossflower Wood would normally pine for the insecurity and sociable Redwall Abbey, but I have been ever since Martin the Warrior started visiting me. But then again, I don't suppose they would accept me anyway."  
  
Craklyn looked at the Abbess with a puzzled look in her eyes. "Somebeast hiding in secret in the Mossflower Woods?" she asked skeptically, trying to tell what the Abbess thought personally from her eyes. But she hadn't stopped reading where the Recorder had.  
  
"Craklyn," Tansy said quietly, "where did you find this?"  
  
Craklyn took off her glasses and wiped them with her sleeve. "I don't rightly know, I didn't know it was here until you showed up. I was inside the whole time with that otter dibbun, although I did.." Craklyn suddenly stopped short and walked rapidly into the tiny gatehouse, bringing the quilt outside with her. "The book must have fallen out of this quilt," she explained rapidly, "I thought the dibbun might catch a cold so I brought the blanket to the doorway, shook it out, and then put it on him. I didn't want dirt or anything getting on the poor fellow.."  
  
Tansy closed her eyes and thought. "Craklyn, who did that blanket belong to?"  
  
"Well, that's simple: Rose." Tansy's eyes shot open. 


	2. A Messy Dinner

The otter babe asleep in the gatehouse stirred impatiently. He looked about him slowly, expecting to see Craklyn at her desk working. He teetered dangerously off the edge of the chair. Trying to regain his balance, he clawed at empty space. Strong paws caught the otter babe just in time.  
  
"Naughty dibbun!" a big voice boomed and the otter babe recognized it instantly. "What are you doing here, Young Sea?"  
  
"Naughty Badgermum!" the dibbun replied in a voice that was supposed to be that of the Badger mother's. "What be you doin' in hea?"  
  
The Badger mother Wren hugged the dubbin tightly. "No one knew where you were hiding, little Sea! You should have told someone where you went."  
  
The dibbun became indignant and poked the Badgermum's cheeks. "I didn't hafta tell nobody because Crackiling was here."  
  
The Badger mother set Sea down on the ground and took his hand. "Craklyn was here, eh?" she asked as the walked toward the Dining Hall. "I wonder where she went? She's not in the Dining Hall or in the gatehouse." She mentally reminded herself to check Abbess Tansy's room and the North and South Walls after dinner.  
  
When they entered the Dining Hall, they saw mass chaos. Dibbuns were running up and down the tables although their parents were telling them sternly to get down. "Thank goodness they haven't served the food yet," Badger mother Wren thought to herself.  
  
Walking briskly for a badger of her age and stature, the Badger mother set the dibbun on the table by the Abbess' chair and whispered something in his ear. On the count of three, they both shouted the same word: "SILENCE!" The Badgermum nodded, satisfied, and thanked the dibbun for being so helpful.  
  
"Abbess Tansy, it seems, would be greatly missed in our Abbey at dinner time," she looked accusingly around the room and then continued, "among many other, more important, times of need. But since the Abbess is probably doing something more important than watching her precious dibbuns, we will eat dinner without herâ€"as civilized beasts, mind." The Badger mother smiled at the dibbuns, whose faces were covered with shame. "It is undeniable that the Abbess will eventually get a hunger and come downstairs, but until then, please, my dear Dibbuns, act as your parents do!"  
  
The dibbuns took this literally, and acted exactly like their parents, mimicking their voices and actions. Soon after the Badgermum said her piece, the food was served. After a few hours, the dibbuns were sent off to bed and the elders called to Cavern Hall. 


	3. Martin the Warrior

While Abbess Tansy and Craklyn were upstairs in the Abbess' room discussing whether the diary should be examined or left alone and musing upon their own thoughts, Craklyn fell into a peaceful slumber.  
  
A mouse, undoubtedly Martin the Warrior, sat on a rock in the middle of a clearing somewhere in the Mossflower Wood. He looked at Craklyn with a happy glitter in his eyes that danced about playfully. His voice was dreamy and soothing but also guiding and helpful.  
  
"When one hast a choice to make,  
  
one cannot overlook anything  
  
for one wrong choice will prove a fatal mistake,  
  
and Redwallers will never again sing;  
  
But if you look into the life,  
  
of a loved one I lost,  
  
you will perhaps understand her sacrifice,  
  
and evil will melt away like a morning frost."  
  
He faded and finally disappeared as Craklyn's desire to sleep wore off. Waking the Abbess gently, Craklyn told her of her dream and recited the poem word for word. Abbess Tansy was neither amazed nor surprised that Craklyn had seen Martin, it was the clarity of the poem that made it seem as if it had some hidden meaning.  
  
"Maybe Martin is just being straight-forward this time because he wants us to learn about Rose," Craklyn offered, her mind reciting the poem repeatedly.  
  
"It just doesn't seem like Martin," Tansy said decisively. "You know how he loved riddles and clues and all that."  
  
Craklyn sighed and nodded. "Yes, I guess you're right. But then I have no idea what he meant."  
  
Tansy smiled slyly. "Maybe we don't have to figure it out. The seasonally meeting in Cavern Hall can't start with out us." 


End file.
